Events for Monday 27th May 2019

On This Day in History

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WWII: German Battleship Bismarck is sunk

27th May 1941

In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy‘s pursuit and subsequent destruction of Bismarck was an epic of naval warfare.

Further Reading

‘A HARROWING INSIGHT INTO THE UNREMITTING CRUELTY OF WAR AT SEA, AS WELL AS THE COURAGE AND COMPASSION OF FRAIL HUMANS PITTED AGAINST SAVAGE WEATHER AND PLUNGED INTO BRUTAL COMBAT…’

In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out into the… Read more...

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Le Paradis massacre

27th May 1940

The Le Paradis massacre was a war crime committed by members of the 14th Company, SS Division Totenkopf, under the command of Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knöchlein. It took place on 27 May 1940, during the Battle of France, at a time when the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was attempting to retreat through the Pas-de-Calais region during the Battle of Dunkirk.
Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, had become isolated from their regiment. They occupied and defended a farmhouse against an attack by Waffen-SS forces in the village of Le Paradis. After running out of ammunition, the defenders surrendered to the German troops. The Germans led them across the road to a wall, and machine-gunned them. Ninety-seven British troops died. Two survived, with injuries, and hid until they were captured by German forces several days later.

Further Reading

In early September 1939, the 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment were one of the first complete infantry units of the BEF to land in France.

The first months of World War Two were relatively quiet but after deploying to the Maginot Line sector during January 1940 they… Read more...

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Heydrich Henchman Of Death Shot

27th May 1942

World War II: Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich is shot in Prague - dying of his wounds on June 4th. His death prompts savage reprisals.
As Charles Whiting perceptively points out in this absorbing study of one of Hitler's most ruthless henchmen, it was literally impossible for those directing the British war effort ever remotely to comprehend the depths of depravity into which their adversaries had sunk...

Further Reading

Reinhard Heydrich was one of Hitler s most evil henchmen. Praised by the Führer as being the man with an iron heart, Heydrich became one of the key architects of the Third Reich's horrific genocide. After his 1942 assassination, the murder of more than two million people at Belzec, Sobibor… Read more...